These are the letters written to friends and loved ones by a man who discovered his courage and proved his humanity in cataclysmic times. They are an extraordinarily personal and moving testimony to the great pleasures and intense horrors that lived side by side in the trenches.
"There was a commander amongst them. There were letters beside him, letters from his wife. They were so lovely! I read them to the soldiers. Some of them, who had become coarsened in this time of war, had tears in their eyes... I think of home."
Lieutenant Gottfried Sender was a quiet, humble soldier, who loathed the war but fought like a lion for his country, and his descriptions of the vicious fighting are vivid. He distinguished himself in the front lines, was twice a recipient of the Iron Cross. But he missed his home life as did every soldier on both sides of the line. His mother died whilst he was in the trenches; "She's tormented with longing for her boy. Now her heart is still, and her longing... perhaps my heart, too, will soon be still."
Indeed, Gottfried Sender would never see his homeland again, never watch in disbelief as Hitler crushed his patriotism and sacrifice into the mud of hatred.
"We're fulfilling our duty; we'll do more, perhaps. Unnamed and unknown, we shall lie out there, perhaps, buried in the earth, who knows where. Only our loved ones at home will mourn for us."
Gottfried Sender speaks to us from our past. His words resound in our present.
